Ruben Amaro Jr. has prepared for this moment since before he was born, in Philadelphia in the winter after the 1964 baseball season, when a pennant slipped away from the Phillies. His father was the shortstop.

The younger Amaro has been in town for the glory, as a bat boy in 1980, a reserve in 1993 and the assistant general manager in 2008. Now in his fifth season as the general manager, he presides over a losing team, and understands the criticism and vitriol that come with it.

“I get it,” Amaro said last week. “I totally understand it. That’s the nature of the beast, particularly here. I have a lot of expectations for the work I do. I’m not happy with how things have worked out at all.”

The Phillies, who face the Mets for four games at Citi Field this week, won a National League title and two more division crowns in Amaro’s first three seasons as the general manager. But last year’s .500 team has slipped to fourth place this season, with a miserable second half that culminated in the Aug. 16 firing of Charlie Manuel, the kindly, avuncular manager who held the club record for victories.

If the firing seemed cold — the Phillies scrapped a planned celebration of Manuel’s 1,000th career victory — it was not without emotion. Amaro, who played for Cleveland when Manuel was the hitting coach, was teary at the news conference. He wants Manuel to stay in the organization but also believes that the interim manager, the Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg, deserves a chance.

“One of the things I’ve noticed is that players play for him,” Amaro said of Sandberg.

“They like playing for him. He’s been demanding on them, and they’ve responded pretty well. That’s my observation, from him being our Triple-A manager in Lehigh Valley for two years and a part of our coaching staff. I know he’s prepared and conscientious.”

The more pressing question than Sandberg’s credentials is whether Amaro’s roster offers a realistic chance to win. With the Phillies at 58-70 through Friday, this season is a lost cause. The Phillies are playing hard for Sandberg — they won four games in their final at-bat last week — but in a division loaded with young, emerging talent, their future is murky.

Besides outfielder Domonic Brown and starters Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels, the team is thin on durable, impact performers. The bullpen has been a wasteland. The highest-paid position player, first baseman Ryan Howard, cannot hit left-handers or stay healthy. The middle infielders, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley, will be 35 this off-season.

Catcher Carlos Ruiz (35 in January) and third baseman Michael Young (37 in October) can become free agents. The Phillies could move on without them, but their replacements are uncertain. The standings all but confirm the belief that the Phillies have stuck with the old guard too long.

“It’s always difficult, and I think it becomes even more difficult as we move forward,” Amaro said. “You have to have that balance of who the fans identify with and what the expectation of excellence is, and the understanding that the skill level may not be there all that long. Sometimes, the popularity outlives the talent and production.”

Last summer, Amaro shipped outfielder Shane Victorino to the Los Angeles Dodgers for starter Ethan Martin, who is receiving an extended look. Amaro got a catching prospect, Tommy Joseph, from the Giants for outfielder Hunter Pence, but Joseph has lost nearly the entire season to a concussion.

Amaro made no trades in July, earning more criticism, but he said he was open to change.

The Phillies have been slow to adapt to the analytics revolution in baseball, seeming to overvalue statistics like saves and runs batted in. Now is the time to learn.

“We may be looking to fortify some of our information with some more statistical analysis,” Amaro said. “We have to look at the way we do things and try to improve. That’s our job, to try to get better every year. I’m not so stubborn that we can’t try to do things a little bit different, or think that we can’t make better decisions. That’s what I’ll challenge our people to do, and I think they understand that. That’s part of what I expect of my staff, and of myself.”

The backbone of the organization, Amaro said, would continue to be scouting and player development. The Phillies, somewhat subtly, were one of the best at that for more than a decade, reaping the benefits of drafting Rollins, Utley, Howard, Hamels and the prospects traded for Lee, Pence, Brad Lidge, Roy Halladay and others.

In March, Baseball America ranked the Phillies’ farm system 24th of the 30 teams. But Amaro insisted the team had better prospects than people realize, and, he said, he continues to negotiate with a top Cuban pitcher, Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez.

Other moves await, but for the Phillies to improve, they must turn out better than last winter’s additions, most of whom got hurt (Mike Adams, John Lannan and Ben Revere) or released (Chad Durbin and Delmon Young). Amaro knows the fans will watch with curiosity and skepticism. He used to be one of them.

Twenty-seven years ago, on Aug. 17, 1986, Cincinnati’s manager, Pete Rose, called on himself to pinch-hit in a game against San Diego. Rose struck out against Goose Gossage and never played again. That was the last instance of a player-manager, a position once fairly common.

Lately, hiring trends have favored younger managers with recent playing experience, and last off-season, an active player, Jason Giambi, interviewed to be the manager of the Colorado Rockies. Giambi, who now plays for the Cleveland Indians, would have retired as a player if he had gotten the job, which went to Walt Weiss.

It seems possible that in the right situation, a player could serve both roles. Before the Chicago White Sox hired Robin Ventura as the manager after the 2011 season, they considered their first baseman, the well-respected veteran Paul Konerko. The idea did not go far, and Konerko said there would never be another player-manager.

“I think it’s impossible,” Konerko said recently. “There’s too much to deal with. Compared to what they had to deal with back then to now, it’s not even close, and that’s only going to get worse in the future. I just don’t see how that’s possible.

“Maybe a coach — where a guy is actually an active player but also in the staff meetings and all that — but there’s just not enough time in the day, I don’t think, for a person to handle both of those things. If there is, then it’s a pretty special person. Today, with all the scrutiny, it would just be tough. I don’t know why anybody would want to.”

While Konerko, 37, held some appeal as a manager to the front office, he said he had no interest in the role.

“You never say never, but I don’t see it — on any level,” Konerko said. “I wouldn’t be good at it.”

Destination: Little League

When Nomar Garciaparra joined ESPN in 2010, he had a request: he wanted to broadcast the Little League World Series.

“It’s just so fun to be a part of it,” he said Friday over the phone from South Williamsport, Pa. “When I’m here, I can’t get rid of the smile on my face.”

Garciaparra, a former two-time batting champion for the Red Sox, embraces the whole experience, including a role as a spokesman for Subway, a Little League sponsor supporting the Challenger Division for developmentally and physically challenged children. Garciaparra played Little League in California — where he now lives with his wife, the former soccer star Mia Hamm, and their three children — but said today’s players were far more skilled.

“For me it was, O.K., play Little League, and when that’s over, the glove’s in the closet and it’s soccer season,” Garciaparra said. “Now when Little League’s done, they’re playing travel ball, or playing travel ball during Little League season, too.

“They’re just playing a lot more baseball, and you can see the development and advancement. Sometimes, I see kids taking ground balls and I’m thinking: I wish I was that smooth when I was in the big leagues. I don’t think I ever looked that way.”

Garciaparra, who often seemed to hold his emotions inside as a player, has nothing to hide in South Williamsport, where the championship game will be played Sunday.